Ticketek owner TEG Group is set to hit the market this month through investment bank Jefferies, and one of the parties that is considered the main party to beat in the competition is Blackstone.
DataRoom understands that the New York-based buyout fund that is no stranger to the Australian market has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs in its quest to buy TEG Group, and its aspirations to buy the company are strong.
Blackstone is currently the largest private equity firm in the world, with $US975bn worth of assets under management through at least 250 portfolio companies and more than 12,000 real estate assets.
In recent years, Blackstone has a particular focus on entertainment assets.
Last year, it purchased the James Packer-backed Australian listed casino operator Crown Resorts for $8.9bn.
In 2021, it made a major investment in the entertainment company of Hello Sunshine, founded by Hollywood actor Reese Witherspoon in 2016.
Two years earlier, it purchased the Las Vegas-based Bellagio Casino, a 65 per cent controlling interest in Great Wolf Resorts and Legoland owner Merlin Entertainments, which operates Sealife aquariums, and the Tussauds Group with its Madame Tussauds wax museums, Warwick Castle and London Eye attractions.
The private equity firm promotes itself as a group that has longstanding experience investing in location-based entertainment businesses like Merlin as well as the wider hospitality, travel and leisure sectors.
And despite the challenge for private equity firms right now sourcing debt priced to their liking, it is flush with cash.
At the start of the year, it raised $US25bn across two funds dedicated to buying second hand stakes in private capital funds and raised $US8.2bn for its long-hold private equity fund during 2020 amid the low interest rate environment when Covid-19 first emerged.
No doubt, Jefferies will be promoting TEG Group as an opportunity to capitalise on the movement by consumers towards live entertainment and away from online environments in the wake of the global pandemic when they stayed at home to prevent getting sick.
Goldman Sachs worked on a sale of TEG Group in 2019 for between $1.2bn and $1.4bn to buyout fund Silver Lake, which purchased the company from Affinity Equity Partners.
Affinity purchased TEG Group from Nine Entertainment for $640m in 2015.
When it was for sale last time around under the ownership of Affinity Equity Partners, groups such as Hong Kong buyout fund PAG, China’s Wanda and Fosun, German ticketing company CTS Eventim, AEG Presents and Live Nation were speculated as potential buyers.
TEG owns Ticketek, which is a leading ticketing services provider to the live events industry in Australia and New Zealand. It is the largest participant by ticket sales volume in Australia.
It operates as the ticketing provider for more than 135 venue and promoter clients, and delivers 30 million tickets annually for over 30,000 events spanning live sports, concerts, theatre, festivals and exhibitions across more than 13 countries.
In 2020, Silver Lake sold a stake to global live entertainment and content holding company Amplify, and also sold a minority interest to Australian investor Mercury Capital in 2019.
Its divisions have promoted some of the world’s biggest names in live sports and entertainment including Hugh Jackman, Guns N’ Roses, Eminem, Katy Perry, Cirque du Soleil and Jerry Seinfeld.
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